Building the Future of Work
Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a leveling effect in much of the business world. Organizations across sectors, of all sizes, are facing similar challenges around protecting their employees, stabilizing operations and finances, and planning for ongoing change in 2021 and beyond.
But the negative effects of the pandemic on midsize businesses—which make up a vitally important part of economies around the world—could last longer and be more consequential. In the US alone, up to 2.1 million small businesses were expected to shut down permanently due to the effects of the pandemic; small and midsize businesses in Europe, Latin America, and parts of Asia are facing similar issues, with many putting strategic projects on hold and vying for government support to stay afloat.1
Recent research from Oxford Economics, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and SAP SuccessFactors underscores the sometimes-wrenching transformation required of midsize companies—defined in this report as organizations with fewer than 5,000 employees—as they
focus on survival and recovery. The study, built on surveys of Human Resources professionals in 10 countries2 in late 2020, sheds light on the sweeping operational, workforce, and technology changes made to date, as well as expectations for the year ahead.